Microsurgery requires very small and very precise instruments, capable of being held and manipulated in a very precise manner for extended periods of time. Thus, these instruments must be comfortable to hold and relatively easy to manipulate to compensate for a user's hand fatigue.
Needle holders for use in microsurgery are known. There are generally two types of such needle holders. The first type has two arms pivotally connected between their distal and proximal ends, with the proximal side of the pivot forming handles and the distal side of the pivot forming jaws. This type of needle holder operates like a pair of pliers, that is, when the handles are moved toward each other, the jaws close, and vice versa. A needle holder of this type is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,898,157. This type of needle holder requires a hand motion far more gross than fingertip control so that under microscopic conditions, it is difficult to hold the jaws steady.
The second type of needle holder is of the tweezers type. This design has two arm members connected at their proximal ends. Jaws are formed at the distal ends and are activated by pressing the two arms together. A locking mechanism is usually included to hold the arms together in a closed position. A needle holder of this type is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,938,214. One drawback with this type of needle holder is that the tweezer action can be unstable due to the fact that the instrument is held between only two fingers (thumb and index). While this instrument is easier to hold steady than the pliers-like instrument, it lacks the control afforded by an instrument which may be manipulated using three fingers.
The present invention provides a microsurgical needle holder design which is a novel variation of the second design, thus providing a needle holder which is very precise, yet simple and may be comfortably held and manipulated for extended time periods.